Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is aghast that some people like to pick up a few bucks doing work which brings no prestige. This is part of a larger obsession among politicians with de-valuing and working against unglamorous jobs that involve "dirty" work.

The Time magazine article creating "the gateway drug" myth in the 1970s provided no citations for its claims, except ambiguous references to unnamed “experts.” The evidence remains elusive 40 years later.